misterbrief | 6th Taunt

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6th Taunt | Video

[It's been a few days since Father's Day. And he got a really nice surprise from his daughter that he never thought possible. Bulla training and honing her skills and power, it really meant something to him; so he's flipping his journal open now since Luceti played a large part of it. He's not even angry this time.]

It's come to my attention that a good number of you had a hand in the gift I received over the weekend. I will say I'm impressed- the lot of you have done the impossible with my daughter Bulla and it most certainly paid off. So for that...[His voice trails off, since saying these sorts of things isn't exactly natural to him.] For that I am grateful. I know a good portion of the time we are safe inside this barrier, but you must understand that I worry for her safety regardless.

So I suppose this is the part where I ask something else not so specific. The gift I received was for your Earthling holiday Father's Day. I've never put much stock in such things, but this last weekend certainly has changed my mind about it a little. Is this something you also observe in your own worlds? And if so, what is it that you've done or would do that you would consider worthy of your father?

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Sounds like you didn't destroy enough of the enemy for them to realize exactly who they were dealing with. [He's drinking more, which is probably really bad for him at this point. He might be telling Cliff things that might not paint such a good portrait of the Saiyan Prince. And there was a lot of negatives to the guy. But then, Cliff did see Vegeta's ruthlessness during the draft. He thinks about that, before continuing on.]

Kill enough of them off and they'll learn not to cross paths with you. But that's not your style, now is it? You'd rather leave them alive! Well. Heh. [He downs yet another drink.] Why exactly is that anyway? Do you think they'll change?

[Cliff had indeed seen the depths of Vegeta's ruthlessness, and wasn't terribly surprised by the turn in the conversation. Prior ones on this topic had danced around the same themes, but he had never seen Vegeta speak so passionately about it.]

It's politics. [He drank more, feeling the familiar lucidity that a few beers gives a man.] You don't just go around killing people-- that'll be a good way to get yourself on the galaxy's top ten most wanted list.

Perhaps you should just blow up their entire base of operations. Let's see them rebuild from that. Make sure all their leaders are inside when you do it, then take control of the situation from there. It'll make for a good fireworks show, wouldn't you say? [He downs another drink. He'd lost count of how many he's had already, but it takes a lot to get a Saiyan drunk. He's getting there, though.]

Then who's list are you going to be on after that anyhow? Maybe the galaxy's top ten most feared. It's a much better list to be on.

[As tempting as it was to close the tab on a Vegeta at that point, Cliff wasn't reckless enough to mess with a drunk Saiyan. There was no telling what would happen...

Besides. He wasn't drunk enough to be that crazy. Talking politics was crazy enough.]

...Lissen. I think we're talkin' at two different things here. Blowing things up is just gonna make anarchy. I thought we went through this already.

[Their ideas, while similar, were tempered by wildly different methods of action and a basic moral compass. As much as the bureaucrats pissed him off, Cliff knew that they were a necessary part of the puzzle. You can't fix a thing if you burn everything to the ground. Then you just have a mess.]

[He shrugs. He knows that.] Not if you take over yourself. I've found monarchy to work quite well. Throwing out the unworthy and taking the lead sounds like a perfect plan to me. Wipe the slate clean. If you don't like how it's done, do it yourself.

...

[Cliff stared at Vegeta, eyes hard, and downed the rest of his glass.]

I ain't that kinda man. If I wanted authority, I'd have taken it by now. But any system that's ruled by just one opinionated guy is liable to fail, and it doesn't take a historian to know that.

Yes, yes, I know. I'd never pegged you for that sort of man. You're far too laid back. You do realize that you're speaking out against a system that myself, a prince by my own birthright, was heavily involved in? But here, let me share a story with you. [But not before he takes another drink. Vegeta, you need to stop.]

As you can imagine, knowing my position it's pretty easy for you to assume my father was the king of our people. If you didn't already figure that out then perhaps you need to get that head of yours checked. He rallied my race and defeated our enemies, the Tuffles. And from there on afterward he became the ruler of our people, and quite successfully- our planet being named after him. He was feared and respected, and in turn did whatever he could that was in the interest of our race. And from what I understand Earth from my world has had a long line of royalty ruling it, and it is by far one of the most peaceful planets I've ever come across. So as far as I'm concerned it's completely possible. I've seen it work.

And besides, I'm sure that plenty of other systems have their own flaws. It just depends on if you have cowards or weaklings running it.

[Cliff ordered another drink himself, and threw caution to the breeze. Vegeta was a reasonable man to a degree, but there were some things that they just would never fully agree on.

This was one of them.

Cliff knocked his back and shook his head, feeling looser and freer now that the compounded effects were starting to hit him. He really needed to monitor his glasses himself.]

...I see your point, but that ain't always the case 'round where I'm from. There's more to the Federation than just Earth, yanno. Maybe someday they'll straighten up, but don't expect me to trust it so much. Try looking in the eyes of a little girl who just saw her mother spaced because the ship she was on ended up in the crossfire of a war that shouldn't even be happening sometime. Tell me what you think then.

[Only reasonable now that he actually, finally grew up. And even then...]

[He doesn't answer right away. He can't because he simply doesn't have sympathy. The hard look in his eyes might give that away, but for what reason, he doesn't explain. Because it sounded no different when he lost his own father and mother, his whole race to an event that he'd worked hard to try to prevent. Did everything asked of him and the word given to him taken back, killing them all anyway. Something, that once long ago, caused him to outright shed tears in front of others.]

[So he orders another drink instead, silently waiting patiently for it, and when he gets it he downs it quickly before he finally decides to speak back up.]

I think she either wallows in her own sorrow like a weak minded fool or she does something about it. If I were her I'd choose the latter.

[Cliff saw that look, the brief moment it lasted, and wondered if he had possibly taken a step too far. He knew the story well enough, but alcohol had a way of getting a man to say things that he normally wouldn't.

This was the cheif reason why he didn't let himself get too far into the cups. It tended to end badly.

But hearing Vegeta's responce earned a soft chuckle and a fond smile. Clearly, he wasn't just talking about any little girl...]

Oh. She did. She's become one of the top people on the Federation's blacklist, even if they don't know her by name.

You must know her by that look. And I've got a pretty good feeling I know who you're talking about. [The man is smart, and it's been more than once he's mentioned Maria to him, in one form or another.]

[It wouldn't be hard to guess the reasons for that either. It's a pity that the man in question was too oblivious to see the obvious.]

Well. She's pretty special in the galaxy. A strong young woman whose smart, capable, and willing to take risks.

And the captain of your ship, right? You keep talking about her. There's more to it than that, isn't there? [He didn't care if Cliff went into details or not, he's just pointing out the obvious to him.]

[He covered his confusion with a deep drink from his glass, although he simply couldn't hide the obvious fact anymore. The alcohol was doing it's work.]

I dunno what you're talking about. It ain't nothing that special...

[He just owed her his life. That's all.]

Right. [He knew perfectly well Maria was too young for Cliff, so his intent isn't toward a romantic one.] So what, because she's your boss now, that means you can't tell anyone you've adopted her? Is that what it is?

[His tone is accusatory but yet, teasing at the same time.]

...

[Cliff finished off his glass and slammed it down, slowly processing the nature of what Vegeta had just said.

It didn't quite work.]

...

What?

Let me spell it out for you. A-d-o-p-t. Are you too drunk for that too? [No, he is a dad and he could tell from that look Cliff had before. If he were oblivious to the rest of the world, this is something that he still wouldn't miss. You don't just have a twenty-eight year old son and fifteen year old daughter and NOT know.]

[No, he understood. He just didn't see how it fit the context.]

Look. I've told ya before- she's my boss. And it ain't easy to have a family in this line of work.

[Particularly if you were also among the top names on the wanted list. Vegeta can say what he wanted-- he was a shit dad if any of that was true.]

Whatever. You care for that girl and you know it. If you didn't you wouldn't be so proud of her and talk about her the way you have. I may not be a rocket scientist but I'm not stupid, Cliff. You'd think you'd of figured that out about me by now. [AND THAT HE'S A DAD AND HE SORT OF GETS IT BELIEVE IT OR NOT?]

I, uh...

[He never doubted Vegeta's intelligence for a second, but he had brought up a topic that Cliff had never really thought that much about before. He never considered having a family-- he was too 'popular', and there was no way he could balance that with anything else. It was why he hadn't kept up with the kids at the Dojo, even if he did make it a point to drop by when he could.

Having a family...was a different business entirely.]

We just kinda fished her outta space, really. The pod we found her in was way off course, and it was only a piece of luck, really. Everyone on the Diplo-- we tried our best with her, but there's only so much a bunch of people in the middle of some interplanetary politicking can do. And we weren't exactly in a position to bring her back to Earth...

So we kept her with us. Brought her to our home system to stay a while and let her try to be normal. But, Earthlings on our planet have to adapt to a few things, and she was kinda the odd man out.

...We couldn't give her what she needed, really. And I've spent too many weeks monkeying with other things to really...yanno, do anything.

I don't regret things, Vegeta, but I sometimes wish I had done just a little more.

[He shifts in his seat. In his drunkeness he'd gone down a road that now, isn't so comfortable for him. It sort of hits a little closer to home for him too, so he decides to be a little vague with his answer.]

It's never too late to change things, Cliff. If there's one thing I've learned so far, it's that. [He won't get into that story. He doesn't like thinking about that even to this day. A hole through his dying son's chest wasn't a happy memory.] So instead of sitting there feeling sorry why don't you do something about it.

[Cliff chuckled in wry amusement.]

If only it were that easy. We're in a bit of a bind back home, so I'm not gonna be able to do anything until that's over. Besides...she kinda can't have a normal life, even if she wanted to.

I think it's pretty safe to say that a lot of people here haven't had normal lives. But I'm sure you can still manage. [He figures if he can do it, anyone can do it, damn it.] From experience I can tell you you'll get your chance. But not if you don't take care of business. If that little girl means as much to you as I think she does then you'd better step it up and do something so then maybe she can have a normal life one day.

[He doesn't know what else to say otherwise. That's what he did, at least. It's the only real advice he can offer other than yelling at him.]

...

[He had no real way to describe the problem without stepping into his definition of 'unneeded and very complicated information.' Even if it didn't, the full scope of the problem hit too close to home. He's finally had a chance to process it all since coming to Luceti, and all it did was made him sympathize with those Existential philosophers from centuries ago.

It was complicated. Too complicated for his tastes.

Fortunately, there were aspects of the problem that were more mundane. Mostly.]

Remember what I said about being near the top of the Federation's blacklist? That'll never let her live normally even after we fix things. Being popular ain't easy, yanno.

There are lots of planets in the universe. I'm sure you'll find one where she can reside. Not every organization touches every corner of the galaxy. You'd be telling me a lie if you said that this Federation has found every single planet. Even I found a home in the vast reaches of space that didn't know my name.

[He will keep it at that. Going farther with that information will only lead to a lot of stories that Cliff probably doesn't want to know about.]

6th Taunt | Video

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Action If you want to leave it here that's cool with me